Caitlyn Jenner Accepts Courage Award At ESPYS, Promotes Acceptance

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Caitlyn Jenner accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs on Wednesday night while urging acceptance for others who are transgender.

She received a standing ovation from some of the sporting world’s biggest stars after her 10-minute speech during the annual awards honoring the year’s top athletes and moments.

“This transition has been harder on me than anything I can imagine,” said Jenner, who revealed she was in the process of becoming a woman in a televised interview with Diane Sawyer in April on ABC.

Noting her powerful celebrity platform, the 1976 Olympic decathlon champion vowed “to do whatever I can to reshape the landscape of how transgender people are viewed and treated.”

Abby Wambach of the U.S. soccer team that won the Women’s World Cup presented the trophy to Jenner, whose voice broke as she thanked members of her famous family, including stepdaughters Kim and Khloe Kardashian. Tears welled in the eyes of Jenner’s younger daughter, Kylie, whose sister, Kendall, wiped a tear from her eye.

“I never wanted to hurt anyone else, most of all my family and my kids,” said Jenner, who admitted that until earlier this year she had never met another transgender person.

She told the audience about trans teenagers who are bullied, beaten up, murdered or kill themselves. She mentioned two people by name whose deaths particularly touched her.

“Trans people deserve something vital, they deserve your respect,” she said. “From that respect comes a more compassionate community.”

Jenner urged the crowd that included football, basketball, baseball and hockey players to remember what they say and do is “absorbed and observed by millions of people, especially young people.”

“My plea for you tonight is one join me in making this one of your issues as well,” she said.

A video traced Jenner’s life from the time when she was known as Bruce Jenner to her current transition. She was shown applying makeup, buttoning her blouse in her closet and fastening the strap on her heeled shoes.

With her hands clasped in front of her, Jenner joked with the audience about her struggle to select the cream gown she wore.

“OK, girls, I get it,” she said, as the audience laughed. “You to get the shoes, the hair, the makeup, it was exhausting. And the fashion police, please be kind on me. I’m new at this.”

Jenner didn’t walk the red carpet outside the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles, and she didn’t appear backstage to talk with reporters, as most of the previous Ashe award recipients have done. ESPN said Jenner wanted her onstage comments to stand.

I choose to reserve my opinion about the ESPY’s Caitlyn Jenner situation. I’m here to remind the Black community that tomorrow will be Eric Garner’s 1 year memorial. He’s the 43 year old man that was choked to t death by alleged corrupted police officers. Doubt the $5.9 million dollars hush money means a damn thing to the Garner family. I’m sure they would prefer if the officers involved in the unjustified murder were charged with 1st degree, 2nd, degree, at least for manslaughter in Eric Garner’s untimely death. God bless the Garner family! I wish there was a planned million man march in August to remember Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and many other victims of hate crimes. No matter how much the mainstream media attempts to overshadow the injustices in America, the truth still matters, our lives still matters. God bless everyone!

Sorry, I meant that the DoD is NOW considering lifting the ban on transgenders in the military. I was typing so fast because this site kept kicking me out before I could complete my comments that I made the error!!

Bruce Jenner has a serious mental disorder that he desperately needs others to approve of so that he can feel “normal” and “respected.” I saw a pan of the audience from a clip of the show (I refused to watch!!) and many of them looked shocked or tried to keep a straight face so as not to upset the PC Police just in case they did a close up.

This country is finished from a moral perspective. I give special thanks and recognition to Obama and his LGBT corps who orchestrated this whole movement with precision to the point where the DoD is not considering lifting the ban on transgenders in the military. In my state and one coming near you, you will now have the opportunity of a lifetime to share a bathroom with some guy trapped in a woman’s body or vice versa who could be a pervert and prey on you are your children!!

Obama said that he would transform this country “as we know it” and he did. Well, welcome to Obama land sans God which has been replaced by secular progressive disciples of the devil. And, we deserve it for being so clueless about this man.

Very Sad Day I’m so sorry for Arthur Ashe Family This Piece of Shit got award for courage I don’t care how much he wants to be a woman and get his Dick cut out he will always be a Man no matter what there are so many people deserve this Award who are Real Hero and Shero not this Piece of Shit.

This was the absolute worst moment of the ESPYS. There are way, way too many people who have shown courage and valor over their sports career to give it to this fake charlatan. It was disgusting, and that is an understatement. They claim Jenner got a standing ovation. What they didn’t say was the horror on so many faces in that same audience. What a Sham. Political correctness has overtaken any objectivity.
ESPN oughtto be ashamed of themselves. But they aren’t. They have elected( like most media outlets) to go after any extra attention they can get, gutter be damned.
If Jenner was half the man he claims to be he would have refused the award, and instead given it to someone more deserving. As someone has already said, Arthur Ashe deserves a complete apology.
To get to be a grandfather and senior citizen and then do this.No Courage whatsoever. Just a human PUNK.

But you know what really makes me the sickest? When Bruce accepted the award he didn’t do it in a feminine voice (like he was dressed), he spoke in his normal man voice. He is so jacked up he can’t make up his mind whether he is male or female. But one thing is for sure he definitely, w/o a doubt has a severe mental illness. And so do the folks at ESPN.

Arthur Ashe. I am so sorry. Even though I am eons removed from this royal clusterfuck, please accept this apology on behalf of all who feel that giving this award to Mr. Caitlyn Jenner is a colossal disgrace.

This person is nothing more than a charlatan and a coward. If he wanted to be courageous he should have come out back in the 60s, 70, 80s or 90s. This would have been courageous as a start athlete to come out as gay or so-called “transgender.” This would have been a feat within itself. However, to live one’s life as a man and produce children and reap all of the benefits of the double standard as well as a white man and then come out when you are a multi-millionaire is not courageous. This is the sign of a coward and a mentally disturbed person. From what I understand he claimed in one interview to not like men sexually, so this makes him a transgendered woman. GTFOH I am so tired of this mess and people trying to force me to agree with their choices. I don’t give a damn if you are gay or straight, I just need you to do your damn job, be a productive citizen and not force or try and inflict your ways on others or harm others.

Living as a man, marrying women and having kids for 60 plus years and now living as a lesbian woman is not courage, it’s just a bad choice. Now you want everyone to except you as a woman, you’re (BJ) putting this on the world to bare your burdens and anyone not accepting of this looks like the bad guy. ESPN giving this award to Bruce does a total disservice to Arthur Ashe and his legacy, Bruce is not brave and never will be in my eyes.

My record holding former buckeye student athlete said it best “Mom you know I LOVE Caitlyn and met the person who broke Bruce’s record BUT a rich 65 year old man finding HERself isn’t courage!! Lauren taking that last dying shot on the court or the vet who lost limbs for this country but excelling in sports is COURAGE!” Now this Jazz girl is being exploited for a reality transgender show??? Enough already! ESPNs Smith said it best on the red carpet, my arts daughter is bitter and angry because in the phony entertainment world the best doesn’t get the work (a family name, a pretty face or a washed up singer, actor etc will) BUT Smith is correct because in sports no one gave a d@ what my youngest daughter looked like…could she WIN and BREAK RECORDS got her trophy case full!!! Be all you can be Jazz and Caitlyn……I see the Army is sponsoring local athletes for TV praise (a honor my buckeye won in high school)! Exhale exhale

I will never accept Bruce Jenner as Catlyn.No matter what it looks like he was born a man.And will always be a man.ESPN used him a joke. Arthur Ashe endured Racism and went through a lot in Tennis. He was truly a man of courage dealing with AIDS. No comparison. There are many out there who has more courage than Bruce Jenner will ever have.ESPN just didn’t look hard enough. The award was a joke